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Tyvek Bicycle Brake Light!

This is the Tyvek Bicycle Brake Light! It works with simple push-button Arduino code. For this project, I wanted to create a bike accessory that I could actually use. The brake light comes in handy while riding in heavy traffic!

Above is the initial sketch and first Arduino mock-up.

The light is comprised of two 12V LED strips, wood and acrylic. A Tyvek FedEx envelope holds the electrical components which are zip tied to the bike frame. To make the light I used an online box generator to create the geometry for the wooden pieces. Then I created a hexagonal pattern in AutoCAD for the “BRAKE” text which was laser cut into the surface of the acrylic. I am quite happy with the esthetic of the piece, but I wrestled for hours over the electronics. Richard helped me figure out that I had the batteries wired up incorrectly, and that’s why my TIP120 transistor was overheating. I think I got a perfect circle burned into my fingertips from the transistor!

The next step for me would be to fit an FSR sensor to the brake lever so that it would trigger the light.

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4 thoughts on “Tyvek Bicycle Brake Light!”

This is very cool and I would love to put a true brake light on my bike. I can also imagine utilizing a sensor that detects the rotational velocity of your tires that would change the amount light emitted depending on your acceleration/deceleration.

Nice project…! Particularly like your sketchbook-writeup and format…. if you dont mind my-asking, what brand / product number is your sketchbook… it looks particularly good for organizing projects…! Thanks for whatever info you can provide..!

Thanks for the comment, I’m hoping to take this project further and shrink down the amount of electronics needed for it to work! The sketchbook is the Maker’s Notebook which you can get online -> http://makezine.com/notebook/